Deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav on Wednesday went on the front foot to back chief minister as Prime Minister material, but ducked a question on whether Nitish is a better PM choice than Rahul Gandhi.
"Chief minister Nitish Kumar is more capable of becoming Prime Minister than Narendra Modi," Tejashwi said during a visit to the RJD party office. "Nitish has all the qualities. He has been chief minister for four terms, he has vast experience, he was a minister at the Centre as well. For a long time, he was a member of the Bihar legislature. The kind of experience Nitish has, Modi does not."
A section of the political grapevine believes Nitish has his eyes set on the Centre, and that if and when he does move to Delhi the chief minister's post will be Tejashwi's for the taking. RJD MP Shailesh Kumar (better known as Bulo Mandal) has already declared that Tejashwi will be the next CM much before the Assembly polls in 2020. Earlier, Lalu too had backed Nitish as PM material. However, it is a touchy issue for Bihar's ruling coalition, of which the Congress is a part. During a recent press briefing of Grand Alliance leaders at the RJD office, education minister and Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee president Ashok Choudhary had said Rahul Gandhi is the only PM candidate for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Asked on Wednesday who is a better PM candidate between Nitish and Rahul, Tejashwi refused to comment.
"In the last news meet of the Grand Alliance, you people had asked a similar question," he replied. "You diverted from the topic of the conference. I do not want create a similar situation."
He instead chose to highlight Nitish's achievements.
"A backward state like Bihar is number one in GDP growth, 22nd in crime, number one in ease of doing business (according to a June 2016 World Bank report). On top of that, Nitishji has fulfilled the promises which he had made during the Assembly elections. Everything is there in front of the public as to who is better," Tejashwi said.
Cooperatives minister Alok Mehta and RJD state unit president Ram Chandra Purbey were present when Tejashwi was speaking.
The deputy chief minister went on to take pot shots at Modi.
"We all know that he was just the chief minister of Gujarat and during the Lok Sabha elections people voted for him but the commitment he made during the polls is not visible at the grassroots level," Tejashwi said. "There is also a vast difference between their body languages. Modi has a dictatorial attitude whereas our CM has a people-friendly approach. Even data and figures Modi quotes is wrong; he has faced criticism as well for wrong data whereas Nitish ji is always spot on."
After his return from London and Switzerland, this was first time that Tejashwi visited the party office to discuss the roster of the karyakarta durbar (party workers' durbar) from September 14.
RJD ministers will sit in the party office every Wednesday and the first to start this initiative will be Tejashwi himself.
"It is a platform where party workers will come with party-related problem and grievances. They will also share feedback of the work being done by the government," he explained.
Tejashwi also gave it back to BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi - who on Tuesday had quipped that if Rabri Devi could have been CM, so could Tejashwi - and said that the former chief minister's standard of comments has dipped.
